


Private correspondence

by perseabeth



Series: How the Avonlea girls find out [1]
Category: Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery, Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: F/M, Shirbert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-09
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:48:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21734029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perseabeth/pseuds/perseabeth
Summary: How the Avonlea girls find out about Anne and Gilbert's relationship by reading a letter that is not addressed to them.--This story can be read independently from the rest of the series.
Relationships: Gilbert Blythe & Anne Shirley, Gilbert Blythe/Anne Shirley
Series: How the Avonlea girls find out [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1574362
Comments: 6
Kudos: 318





	Private correspondence

Although formality was a rule in the boarding house, a lack of it was present on this specific day; it was not common to see four girls running up the stairs after receiving one letter, but the excitement of the situation was too much for them.  
‘’Jane, I still don’t know if we’re doing the right thing,’’ Ruby whispered as she closed the door behind her. ‘’It’s her private correspondence, and I doubt she will be happy when she discovers what we have done.’’  
‘’Oh, Ruby, relax,’’ answered the tall blonde girl. ‘’What has Anne to hide? Are you not one bit annoyed at how you tell her everything about your endeavours with Moody and she tells us nothing about her secret lover?’’  
Ruby, in a lack of words, sat down next to Tillie and Jane on Diana’s bed. It was true that she wished to know to whom Anne’s heart belonged, but she did not want to be the one holding the letter, thinking that would exclude her from guilt.  
‘’I can’t believe it was so easy to trick the postman into giving us that letter!’’ Jane exclaimed. ‘’Oh, Josie, open it already! I need to know its contents already!’’  
Josie laughed as she carefully opened the envelope, making sure not to read the sender.  
‘’It will go as planned,’’ she explained, ‘’I will not read the sender and, when we have finished reading the letter, we will try to guess who it is!’’  
The girls laughed at this, visibly excited about the prospects of learning about Anne’s beau.  
‘’We have to be quick, girls,’’ Tillie reminded them. ‘’Diana has piano lessons this afternoon, but Anne’s trip to the library should not take her long.’’  
Josie, nodding, carefully opened the letter, making sure to maintain its end folded, the sender’s name covered by her hand. Clearing her throat, she lifted her chin, looking regal as she started to read.  
‘’My dearest Anne…’’  
Tillie could not help but laugh, excited at the prospect of hearing the contents of a love letter. Jane and Ruby quickly shut her up; however, a smile adorned their faces, since they were equally excited.  
‘’I cannot seem to think of anything more than the way your lips felt on mine. You have told me before how improper you think it is for me to write about it on every letter, but I love imagining your smile as you write these words with fondness in your heart. I shall imagine myself the luckiest man alive until the day I perish now that I know my heart belongs to you, and you only,’’ Josie, with a suggestive smile, looked at her friends, whose mouths were open at her words. ‘’With every passing day, I wish that you were here with me. It would take everything in me to behave the way a proper gentleman should and not take you to a hidden corner and profess how much I love you and wish to live my whole life next to you. Please, do not blush at this; it pains me to know I cannot see the way your face turns the colour of your hair and your mouth tries not to crack a smile. I miss home, and I miss my family; however, you shall know that, what I miss most, is you.’’

It had come as quite a disappointment to Anne that no letter had been delivered with her name on the envelope. She understood that he was busy, and did not want to pressure him into sending more letters that he could afford, both because of his time and his income. However, she still ached to read his words every night, and she always wished for something new, not the words that she had already learnt by heart after reading his correspondence multiple times before going to bed.  
She had made sure to let him know that he was not to write his name on the envelope, knowing that her friends were nosy and would not fail to notice it were it there. She was aware of the fact that her friends knew about her correspondence, but she simply shook the matter off with a smile whenever they made any enquiries about it; ‘’I’m not stealing any of your suitors, I can assure you,’’ she’d say.  
‘’I promise to cherish you when we are finally reunited,’’ Anne heard. The voices coming from her room were loud and clear, and she smiled when thinking of the girls reading love letters to each other. Surely, it surprised her; not many love letters had arrived, except from Gilbert’s, but that was something her friends did not know.  
She opened the door to her bedroom, which earned her a surprised gasp from Ruby.  
‘’Hello, girls,’’ Anne said, resting her parasol on her bed. ‘’What are you doing here?’’  
Before Ruby could say anything, Jane quickly answered, putting her hand on Ruby’s knee to keep her quiet.  
‘’Reading correspondence, silly,’’ she said with a laugh. ‘’We are trying to know who the sender is without reading his name. It makes everything much more exciting.’’  
‘’In my room?’’ Anne said, with a soft smile adorning her face. She loved how close they had all become in these few months, something she could not have imagined at the end of the previous school year.  
‘’It’s the biggest one!’’ Josie said, a smirk on her face.  
Anne shook her head as she removed her hat and laid it carefully on the chest at the end of her bed. She took her jacket off silently before sitting on her own bed, waiting for Josie to continue her reading.  
‘’I hope you do not find it rushed for me to ask to court you during Christmas. I will ask for permission -I do not want to say any names in my letter, however, for they make it sound less intimate; I like to believe you and I are the only people in the world, and naming other people seems to take that away,’’ Josie finished, with a sigh that screamed lovesickness. ‘’I shall love you forever and think about you only…’’  
The girls laughed collectively like schoolgirls; however, Anne looked at them with sad eyes. Those words reminded her of Gilbert, whom she deeply missed and who she wished had written that letter.  
‘’I wish to receive a letter like that one day,’’ Jane sighed.  
‘’Oh, Jane, you will,’’ Tillie said, laying her hand on her friend’s knee in a supportive gesture. ‘’I believe it’s Charlie Sloane,’’ she quickly said, with a laugh.  
‘’Oh, it couldn’t be!’’ Ruby screamed, astonished.  
‘’Tillie, don’t be silly,’’ Josie answered, rolling her eyes. ‘’He doesn’t know how to spell his surname. You can’t expect him to write something this romantic!’’  
Anne laughed and shook her head, finding the idea of Charlie Sloane writing this kind of letter to be ridiculous.  
‘’Oh, Josie, but you must know who has written it! It’s your letter after all, isn’t it?’’  
Anne knew the moment that Ruby’s eyes laid on her that the answer she was expecting was not the answer she desired. She realised too late what was happening and, by the time she was standing and running towards Josie, the latter had already turned and stretched her left arm towards Anne, keeping her away while she unfolded the bottom part of the letter with her right hand.  
‘’Josie, please, don’t do this!’’ Anne cried, a knot in her throat.  
‘’Oh, Anne, it cannot be that embarrassing!’’ Josie laughed, looking at Anne before finally unfolding the letter and looking at its sender. ‘’Yours forever, Gilbert,’’ she finished in a whisper.  
The room suddenly turned silent, Anne’s quiet cries being the only sound to be heard.  
‘’This is my private correspondence,’’ she angrily whispered, taking the letter away from Josie’s hand, who had become still at the news.  
Anne shoved the letter into her desk drawer, covering her face with the curls that had fallen on her face during the encounter. She only wished to be alone, but she did not find it in her to say anything; if she did, questions would follow. Questions she did not want to answer.  
‘’Gilbert Blythe is your suitor?’’ Josie softly asked.  
Anne, trying to muster up courage, raised her chin and looked her straight in the eye, a motionless expression on her face.  
‘’I would like to know how you have managed to grab my private mail and what gave you the idea that you were the right person to read it,’’ she said. ‘’Since I assume your name was nowhere to be seen on the envelope, I do not understand how you thought it correct to open it and read it with no shame at all.’’  
Nobody in the room moved. Anne’s mind was racing with thoughts, not knowing what could happen after this.  
‘’Anne, Gilbert wants to court you!’’ Ruby exclaimed happily, standing up and walking towards Anne. The latter, still in a trance, opened her eyes and let the former grab her hands, not knowing how to react. ‘’That’s wonderful, Anne!’’  
The spell had finally broken, and everybody laughed. Anne’s nervousness finally disappeared, the truth visible. She, finally, did not have to hold secrets from her friends and, therefore, felt free.  
‘’How did you not tell us he kissed you! We must know everything right now!’’ Jane screamed as she pushed Anne towards the bed.  
Anne laughed incredulously as she let her friends wrap their arms around her, the story quickly leaving her mouth as she finally was free to say what she had been fearing to explain for weeks.


End file.
